Blogging About Math In Real Life (and loving it!) with Kate Ertmann
By Tim Chartier, Davidson College
Kate Ertmann
Kate Ertmann, simply put, loves math. Although she’s not a mathematician, she writes a blog about math, spreading her joy of the subject broadly. In this interview, we see how a childhood in front of the camera as an actor springboarded her into creative career options and also into writing about math, not as a career but just to share her love for it with others.
Tim Chartier: To begin, tell us a bit about yourself—your background, what you enjoy, and your relation to and interests in mathematics.
Kate Ertmann: I write math essays on my blog called Kate Loves Math*. And I do love math very, very much. It gives me all the peace in the world when I get to read and learn how math is flippin’ everywhere and at the root of everything.
I do not have any sort of traditional mathematical education or background. I grew up in NY and from the ages of about 6 to 16, I was a professional child actor, which meant I would miss school a lot because I’d either be out on auditions or I’d be working. So when I was in school, I just wanted to blend in with everyone else and not be solely referred to as “the kid who does commercials.” One of those things that I started doing as a way to blend in with all the other kids was to not raise my hand in class.
So, by the time I got to about 6th or 7th grade, in math class I was keeping quiet, even though math was the thing that I loved the most because it gave me both peace and joy. I didn't take the silence as far as the character of Cady did in the movie Mean Girls, but I definitely sat in the back of the classroom. I took just the math classes that were required to graduate, which means I stopped my formal math education after trigonometry; I didn’t even take pre-calc.
I went to Ohio University and got a BS in Telecommunications because I wanted to work behind the camera instead of being in front of it. I ended up in Portland around the same time the movie Toy Story came out, and we were all introduced to long-form 3D animation. I started using animation in infomercial production because it allowed us to show things like the internal workings of whatever product we were selling. I became enamored with 3D because it was the perfect marriage of creativity and math.
But I myself didn’t become a 3D animator. Instead, I ended up owning a 3D animation company. And I learned so much of how art and technology needed to work together seamlessly; like, in order to make a character’s walk cycle look realistic you had to understand the physics behind the dynamics of the related shoulder movement.
My favorite types of projects were when we helped our clients ideate and visualize new products in 3D. Once we created those items we could test the user’s interaction and overall experience with them, and then we’d iterate their design, and then test and then iterate, etc, all in 3D space. I called it Ethnographic Animation and it was really satisfying work.
I definitely ‘lost touch’ with my love of math for a while in my twenties. However, as I started traveling for work more often and eventually started doing a fair amount of public speaking in support of Ethnographic Animation, I had stretches of time while I was on planes and in hotels to get back to reading all types of math-related books. Once I actually started incorporating all the math info I was gobbling up directly into the work I was doing day to day, I regained that peace/joy combo that I used to feel as a kid, long ago, in math class.
Outside of work, math is also very present in my life. I love NASCAR (and most other motorsports) because it is math at 200mph. [See Kate talking about NASCAR here.] I’ve loved baseball since I was a kid, and greatly enjoy scorekeeping MLB games—mostly watching them on TV though I do get to a few in-person games when I can, especially if my Yankees are playing.
Tim: Can you talk about your blog “Kate Loves Math*”? What’s your purpose with the blog and how did it come about?
Kate: I started the blog because for so many years when I talk with my friends and talk with my peers they say to me some variation of: Kate makes math make sense. I have never wanted to write a book, and I know enough about business to know that no one would publish a book about being inspired by chaos by someone who is not a mathematician. Very, very, very few math and science books are written by folks who have not been formally educated in the subject they're writing about. Luckily, I’m really loving the act of all this writing for the blog and its newsletter. And I have a humongous spreadsheet with a lot of different topics and terms so I have plenty more to keep adding to Kate Loves Math*.
Tim: Suppose a reader is interested in writing about mathematics to the general public, what suggestions do you have?
Kate: When I write, I utilize what I know from my storytelling past in production for many, many decades, as well as what I've learned more recently around science communication. It’s useful to understand traditional storytelling arcs—like telling a story in three acts—and to introduce some point of conflict, using your own voice at that point. And you’ll want to make sure that you have at least one takeaway, one solid piece of information that can answer the question of “What is this story about?”
I’d also highly recommend having someone else read your stuff before you put it out there for public consumption, someone you’d consider to be a part of your readership, someone from the “general public.” Maybe someone who is a peer to you and whom you can trust. I’m very curious about how a person feels after reading one of my math essays. Did they feel hopeful? Did they feel like they wanna take action about something? Did they just laugh and like the imagery that was described?
Science communicator Cara Santa Maria interviewed Mary Roach (my #1 favorite writer!) on her Talk Nerdy podcast and they agreed that you should never underestimate the intelligence of your audience, but always underestimate their vocabulary. During a MoMath event, Steven Strogatz said that in your math communication you should show some level of empathy. I took that as just being human and showing relatability. I love that dance and I keep that in mind in everything I write.
Tim: Suppose a reader wants to learn more mathematics but isn’t in school; what’s your advice?
Kate: My advice to anybody who wants to learn about math but is not in school is what I've been doing these past few decades: reading. I read a ton. There are so many great pop science/math books, even ones that have a personal story arc all the way through. All of Mary Roach’s books, Lulu Miller’s Why Fish Don’t Exist, Hope Jahren’s Lab Girl, and Steve Strogatz’s Calculus of Friendship.
If you find a book you really like, then see who endorsed or recommended the book and look that person up.
There’s tons of stuff online, tons of blogs. Blogs by academic mathematicians, blogs by folks like myself who just love math. There are magazines online that are online-only, like Quanta Magazine, which is just stellar journalistic writing.
And then there are events. The events at the Museum of Math—MoMath—saved my brain, honestly, during 2020 and it’s continued through to today. I attended many events online. I even became a member of MoMath though I live across the country. I got to meet practicing mathematicians and have conversations with them and learn about books that I hadn’t already known about, and I just got to have a sense of a like-minded community along with all the other online attendees.
Tim: What connections do you see between math and art?
Kate: Well, there’s definitely the mathematical connection with music, especially with rhythm and with harmony. I love the precision of it, the intention around what makes harmony harmony is, whew, it's so good. I’ve actually written an essay about that sweet spot where math and harmony meet. The peace and comfort I get when I am musically performing is very similar to what it feels like when I am in a deep math groove.
I love it when I stumble upon public expressions of those two disciplines. On the coast of southern Oregon, there is a multi-month event called Circles in the Sand, and it’s a group of people who trace out different patterns, different labyrinths for anyone to walk through. One of the things that I find most fascinating about it is that it is art that only lasts until the tide comes in, and then it's gone.
Do you know about Edward Tufte? He's known for how he presents data visually. He teaches many courses, he's written many books, and he has a slightly different perspective from most others in his field. He did an exhibit a while back called “The Cognitive Art of Feynman Diagrams” that I got to see in person, and it was amazing. And he did it all in stainless steel sculpture.
Math is just everywhere, yo.
TIm: In what ways do you see yourself as a mathematician, in what ways do you see yourself as an artist, and in what ways do you see yourself as both?
Kate: Wow, that’s a really heavy question; it really made me think. My first reaction is that that's all that I am, those two things. Not in a limiting way, but as an expansive “I am all of that.” Those are my things. Those are my passions.
I see myself having the instincts of a mathematician. I have the curiosity and at least a modicum of the stubbornness. Also, I'm a “but, why?” person. We're so annoying. My mom was like that and it drove me crazy. And now I fully realize that I am like that, too.
And then regarding being an artist, well, I am a singer. I’m very influenced by all types of visual art, as well. I consciously make the time to absorb and consider what it is that attracts me to it.
Which then leads me directly into how I’m both a mathematician and an artist. I think the default point of where I live and think is right at that intersection. I believe I know how an artist thinks, and how a mathematician thinks or how someone who is technically minded thinks, and I can speak with folks of any age who are mathematicians or who are on the creative side. I believe that they believe I understand them, that I get where they are coming from—and that knowledge has definitely contributed to how I write with multiple audiences in mind.
Whenever I could explain why or how something was occurring in a situation in the workplace and I could make an analogous math-based example to help ground everyone in some certainty, it really clicked for a lot of folks. Knowing the mathematical basis behind real life concepts can totally be the fuel for making better choices.
I feel very fortunate that I landed in this place in-between and that I get to experience both worlds. Math is everywhere.
Tim Chartier is the 2022-23 Distinguished Visiting Professor at the National Museum of Mathematics and the Joseph R. Morton Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Davidson College.